


This Side of the Skin

by NeurotropicAgentX



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Bittersweet, Blood, Implied Darkest Timeline, Issues, Mutual Xeno Kink, Other, RIOT WAS HERE, Rare Pair, Xeno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-02 13:58:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19200277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeurotropicAgentX/pseuds/NeurotropicAgentX
Summary: In a far off spaceport, the lone survivor of a worldwide massacre and an outcast scout gone AWOL find some common ground.Some people?? sleep with weird aliens?? to cope???





	This Side of the Skin

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my editor for her invaluable assistance.

Venom was nearly sure the mammalian biped was staring at it and had been doing so on and off for the last hour. The bar was crowded and, even fully manifest, Venom barely stood out in the multi-species mix. There was nothing overtly aggressive about the mammal’s stare, but being watched seldom led to good things.

Venom didn’t technically have permission to be out here on a nothing backwater that was more port than occupied planet. Technically it hadn’t been ordered _not_ to be here. Maybe it was collecting valuable reconnaissance information. A lot of species came through this port and most of them came from richly inhabited planets full of living creatures. At least that was the story Venom planned on giving if it ran into anyone that outranked it. Which was practically everyone anyway. 

Venom fished the last squirming sting-tail out of the box and ostentatiously swallowed the creature whole. It glanced over at the biped to gauge his reaction. He was watching intently and his pink tongue darted out to wet his lips. Interesting, but not conclusive. There was only one way to be sure. If the biped was hosting someone strong enough for Venom to worry about, bolting wouldn’t help. And if he _wasn’t_ …

Venom pushed the empty box to the centre of the table for the bar staff and slouched off in the direction of the biped’s table. **‘You’ve been watching me,’** Venom said by way of introduction. It loomed over the table, but the biped didn’t seem the least bit concerned.

He looked down at his drink and a strange little smile formed on his face. ‘Yes. Sorry,’ he said carelessly. ‘It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of you. You’re a klyntar, aren’t you?’ he asked in faintly accented Standard.

Venom rippled. **‘You know my kind?’**

‘Intimately.’ Venom liked the sound of his voice. There was only one clear tone, devoid of harmonics, and the frequency was a pleasant vibration. 

**‘And you’re… alone?’** Venom asked. Based on the reactions, it was almost sure no one was riding the biped. Almost. 

The biped’s faint smile twisted into a grimace before smoothing out again. ‘Quite alone.’

Venom pondered this. **‘How do you know my kind, then?’**

The biped sighed. ‘It’s a long story.’ 

**‘It’s a long night.’**

The biped’s gaze wandered up Venom’s flesh slowly, lingering on its teeth, before he met its eyes. He blinked slowly. ‘Would you like to join me?’ he asked, gesturing at the empty seat across from him.

Venom took the seat, showing off just a bit with how fast it could move. The demonstration didn’t go unnoticed judging by the sharp breath the biped gave in response. Not fear though. Venom hadn’t picked up a hint of that familiar taste-scent in the air. **‘Alright.’**

‘I’m Drake.’

**‘Venom. Are you a sichultia?’**

‘Human, actually.’

**‘Ah.’**

‘It’s alright if you haven’t heard of us. We don’t have much of a galactic presence.’ His smile grew a brittle edge and he looked away toward the bar. ‘What are you having?’ he asked.

Venom blinked. It had picked up enough in this place to recognise Drake’s words as an offer, but did _he_ understand what it was to offer food to a klyntar, even indirectly? **‘Sting-tails’.** It liked the crunch.

Drake gestured politely for one of the staff. He finished his drink while they waited. ‘I don’t think I’ve seen one of you on your own before.’

Venom shifted uncomfortably. **‘Not doing anything wrong.’**

‘Sorry, that wasn’t an accusation. I’m glad for the opportunity to… talk.’ 

A fresh box and a new drink for Drake arrived. 

Venom crunched through the first couple of sting-tails while it thought. Drake’s gaze followed the movement. **‘How long have you been off-world?’**

‘Years now. It’s been an adjustment.’ 

Venom gave a low rumble of agreement. **‘Being alone is an adjustment.’**

‘Quite. And some kinds of alone are harder than other kinds,’ Drake added in a low murmur. 

Venom wasn’t sure if it was meant to have heard that last part. But the pieces came together and suddenly it understood the little hints Drake had been exuding. **‘You’ve hosted one of us,’** it said.

‘Yes,’ Drake said evenly. ‘A long time ago.’

Venom thought through the implications. Drake was alive. He was alive and alone and intact and he wasn’t afraid. He’d been flirting with Venom. A strange warmth spread through its core as it tried to work out what could have happened. Maybe whoever had ridden Drake had _liked_ him. Maybe it had been a low-ranking outcast just like Venom. Maybe they’d secretly been in symbiosis right in front of team leaders and other powerful klyntar and managed to stay together. Or even _flee_ together. 

**‘What happened to it?’** Venom asked eagerly.

Drake’s gaze slid away and he took another sip of his drink. ‘It made its choices. As we all do.’ Drake’s reluctance didn’t diminish Venom’s curiosity or even dull the edges of the vivid scenario unfolding in its mind. It imagined one of its kind caring enough to save a host. Somehow.

**‘What was its name?’**

An unhappy little smile hovered on Drake’s lips. ‘I don’t know how to translate it in Standard. “Collective aggression”, perhaps? In my language it called itself _Riot_.’

Venom repeated the strange sounds to itself. Even across the gulf of space, Venom felt a moment of kinship with this Riot. It hoped Riot had lived. 

**‘Sorry to bring up the past. Wasn’t sure if you were flirting with me or not.’**

Relief flickered across Drake’s expression and he seized the change of topic. ‘Oh I was definitely flirting with you. I’m glad you noticed.’ 

**‘Not the first time I’ve flirted with an alien,’** Venom admitted slyly.

Drake raised an eyebrow. ‘Interesting.’ His head tilted. ‘Unusual, even.’ 

Knowing that Drake had hosted someone aberrant made Venom less self conscious about helping him come to that conclusion. **‘Rare, perhaps. Like you.’** Venom had definitely never heard of a human before and it made a habit of remembering other species. 

Drake snorted into his drink. ‘You have no idea.’ When he looked back up his dark-on-light eyes held an intent focus. ‘But before I go any further I have to ask, what about your host?’

Venom let its confusion ripple across its face. **‘What about it?’**

‘How does your host feel about this?’ He made a vague gesture. ‘The flirting.’

 **‘Oh. It doesn’t. Not since I entered and took over.’** Just being here alone, with only the flimsiest pretence of a mission, was bad enough. Venom wasn’t compounding its aberrant behaviours by leaving its host intact. It knew itself, knew that it would just end up trying to enter full symbiosis if it didn’t remove the temptation directly.

‘Ah. I see. I suppose that… simplifies things, at least.’

 **‘Yes?’** Venom wasn’t sure what Drake was getting at or why he’d gone so tense all of a sudden. 

‘Do you ever look at all the choices that led you to a particular moment and doubt your own sanity?’ Drake asked lightly. 

The question was definitely rhetorical, and Drake’s little smile was inviting Venom to share the joke, but the tension was still in his muscles and the bitterness in his words was clear. And familiar. **‘Frequently,’** Venom replied a little too honestly. 

Drake gave a surprised bark of laughter and for the first time that night it wasn’t tinged with anything other than good humour. His shoulders dropped back down and his gaze became more speculative. ‘I’m in this port for the next couple of days before I ship out, so I already have a room here. You’re welcome to join me for the night.’

**‘I’d like that.’**

Drake pushed away from the table and headed toward the staircase off to the left of the bar. Venom followed. Drake’s room was mid-sized and fitted with the basic modifications to accommodate most land-based species. The sleeping pallet was in one of the simpler configurations, wide and flat, but higher than Venom usually encountered. Either Drake didn’t mind the risk of falling during the night or he was too used to low-G environments. 

Venom flicked the door closed behind them with a couple of tendrils and the automatic locks beeped at the universally annoying pitch. Drake turned around and his stare was even more intent than it had been downstairs. ‘I have one ground rule. Everything else is up for negotiation, but you’ll stay on this side of my skin throughout. I’m going to have to insist on that.’

Venom looked at the tight set of Drake’s jaw, the renewed tension running across his shoulders. **‘Wouldn’t take you over,’** it said reproachfully. 

‘I don’t care. I’m drawing a line.’

Venom shifted thoughtfully, its tongue dragging over the back of its teeth. It could understand Drake’s reluctance and it was a little flattered to be extended enough trust that Drake was taking this risk at all. But there was more than one reason to want to slip into his bloodstream. **‘Still want to know what I’m doing to you and it’s a lot easier to taste that directly.’**

Drake’s eyes hooded. ‘Ah. Of course. And if you’re not fully integrated with your host’s systems there’s a limit to what you’ll get out of this…’ He trailed off. Then he blinked a couple of times and refocused on Venom. ‘Surface wounds. You can make me bleed a little and taste what you’re doing from that. While staying on the outside.’ 

Venom rumbled its approval of the idea. Drake had understood what Venom had meant and he’d barely hesitated over offering his own substance. **‘You know what you’re offering.’**

‘Oh yes. I know exactly what I’m offering and I have a pretty good idea of what you want.’ He closed the distance between them and reached out to press his hand against Venom’s surface. Drake’s fingers pushed into Venom’s flesh and he hooked them like claws, even though his nails were charmingly blunt. 

Venom split off tendrils to wind up Drake’s arm, beneath his clothing. He shivered. ‘Yes, alright, give me a moment.’ He drew back slightly and started removing his clothes. That wasn’t necessary, but it did make things easier. Especially since Venom wouldn’t have to distinguish between the barrier it was allowed beneath and the one it wasn’t. 

Once he was naked, Drake drew them toward the bed. Venom considered its options as Drake stretched out on the sheets. He looked good sprawled like that, all symmetrical limbs and oddly static surfaces. Even staying on the outside, Venom would still have access to the texture of his hair, the absurdly warm skin with densely packed nerves, and his blood. Mammals were good to touch and Venom had been with enough of them to know how satisfying it was to overwhelm them and taste the effects directly. But that meant not wasting all those sensitive interfaces on sheets. 

Venom hovered above Drake’s body before sliding around to reform beneath him. It manipulated its host body and wound tendrils around Drake’s limbs to rearrange them. Another gentle tug had Drake resting fully on Venom, bare skin against membrane. **‘I want you to only feel me against you,’** Venom explained as its tendrils slowly thinned out and oozed across Drake’s legs to hold him spread.

Drake’s breath stuttered and Venom could feel the beat of his pulse quickening beneath his skin. ‘Yes, that sounds perfect.’

Venom savoured the opportunity to touch without direct feedback, to explore and guess at the sensitive places based on the way Drake clutched at it. There was only so much flesh that it could extend over a non-host body. Rather than try and engulf Drake, Venom spiralled loosely across his skin, winding around his limbs, over his head, and pressing against the places that made him gasp. 

Drake recovered quickly from the initial shock. He traced a thicker piece of Venom that was dragging along his neck before splaying his palm across it. Venom felt his throat bob. Drake’s fingers curled beneath the tendril and peeled it off his neck. Venom pulsed in the light grip, enjoying the warmth and the subtle texture of Drake’s whorled finger pads. He looked Venom straight in the eyes as he brought its tendril to his mouth. His lips quirked up in a sharp smile before he bit down on Venom’s flesh, hard and fast.

Venom growled in surprise and it spasmed tight around Drake’s body. Not pain, not a threat, it reminded itself. Drake wasn’t built like a predator. His teeth were blunt, like his claws, and barely capable of piercing. But eating, pleasure, food and danger were all wrapped together in Venom’s mind and the look in Drake’s eyes as he gradually increased the pressure against Venom’s flesh made it shiver. There was a lot of power in Drake’s jaw, even if his teeth were ineffective.

The tip of Venom’s caught tendril flicked against Drake’s tongue and he moaned. The sound rippled pleasantly along Venom’s surface and it oozed up Drake’s neck to feel the vibrations better. Maybe it could slide down his throat and feel that from the inside. Technically that wouldn’t be crossing the skin, but it risked misinterpretation. Instead, Venom ran its claws down the centre of Drake’s chest, still holding back from splitting the skin.

Drake groaned and his fingers tightened against Venom. He flung his other arm back, giving Venom better access to that warm expanse of skin. Such a clear offer sent fierce satisfaction through Venom. It engulfed Drake’s arm and tugged on it to arch him further. Instead of fighting, Drake just tilted his head back to bare his throat as well. 

Even with its flesh still caught between Drake’s teeth, Venom was keenly aware that it could do whatever it wanted. Drake had to know that too. By the way he responded, the way he touched Venom, he clearly knew something about klyntar. But here he was restrained in a pleasing curve, helpless before Venom’s claws, and practically inviting it to dig a little deeper.

 **‘Want to taste you,’** Venom said, pricking its claws hesitantly, reverently down Drake’s soft skin.

Drake gently slid Venom’s tendril out of his mouth and smiled faintly. ‘Go ahead. I want you to know what you’re doing to me.’

The grating rumble Venom gave in response was entirely unconscious. Its claws curled against Drake’s chest and it dragged them down slowly, carefully, just enough to make him bleed, just enough for a taste. The noise Drake made was low and throaty and his eyes fluttered closed. The reaction was a pale echo of what Venom tasted against its claws. Drake’s blood was saturated with arousal and desire and Venom luxuriated in the taste-scent of alien pleasure. But there was something more beneath the rich, chemical signals, a sharp familiar flavour that sent a quiver of fear through it.

 **‘A team leader. You were bonded to a _team leader_?’** Venom couldn’t keep the incredulity out of its tone. How was Drake alive? Since when would a team leader do something as aberrant as leaving a ride intact?

Drake grimaced. ‘Please tell me it didn’t do the biochemical equivalent of writing “Riot was here” in my blood.’ He sounded angry, but his arousal hadn’t dropped and if anything his heart was pounding harder.

Venom’s tendrils twitched and writhed as it tried to reconcile this new information with the story in its mind. Not a scout like it. Drake had hosted a powerful, dangerous team leader. The exact sort of person that Venom had been taking pains to avoid. **‘Not on purpose. Anyone makes minor changes to ensure host compatibility. I can recognise a team leader’s work. Good work,’** it admitted grudgingly. 

Drake gave a breathless laugh. ‘How pathetic is it that I’m almost happy to hear that? It would feel strange to have been left without some tangible sign. After everything.’ 

**‘Not pathetic!’** Venom said indignantly. That was romantic. Venom started integrating the new information into the story. A team leader sparing its ride, but tragically having to abandon the host it had risked itself for. A team leader would have had access to the resources necessary to help a host escape a planet. That made sense, at least. 

Venom stilled as something else occurred to it. A team leader could easily have been _responsible_ for bringing in the rest. For dooming Drake’s species. There was an unpleasant lurching feeling deep in Venom’s core. Saving a host, but making a choice. Choosing its people first. The acrid resentment in Drake suddenly made a lot more sense too.

‘Can we not talk about this now? I want– ’ Drake started to say, oblivious to Venom’s disquieting realisation. 

Venom made a low noise of agreement and tried to focus on the present. On the taste and feel and scent of Drake’s body, of his blood. Drake’s wasn’t the first planet ripped apart by the klyntar and it wouldn’t be the last. Venom had made its choices too and it wasn’t there on that world. It was here with an exotic and inexplicably willing alien who wanted what Venom wanted. **‘I can taste what you want,’** it said, flexing its claws and making fresh blood seep from the shallow cuts across Drake’s chest.

Drake’s teeth sank into his lip and he nodded quickly. Venom had been deliberately keeping away from his genitals until now. It had wanted to experience the chemical shift directly, to feel the feedback loop escalating until every drop of pleasure had been wrung from Drake’s alien systems. Now its tendrils spread across his thighs and wound around his cock. It squeezed lightly, rolled across the hot flesh and pulsed. 

Drake jolted, his muscles straining against Venom’s hold. A new flood of pleasure signalling spilled into his blood and Venom purred at the rich complex taste against its claws. Working out what felt good, what Drake’s body responded to, wasn’t easy from the outside, but discovery was half the fun. 

Venom’s tendrils thinned out across Drake’s body, only leaving enough to hold him still. Its mass pooled lower to fully encase Drake’s cock and it let its tongue curl out of its mouth to better taste the interesting scents in the air. Drake’s gaze instantly snapped over to the movement. He didn’t look nervous. He looked hungry. 

Venom tested the waters by lapping up a bead of sweat that was sliding down Drake’s collarbone. Drake shuddered, but only tried to shift closer. The sharpness in his eyes was fading away, becoming hazy and soft with pleasure. **‘Don’t mind this?’** Venom asked. It was aware of how close its teeth were to Drake and what licking across his skin might convey. 

‘What… whatever you want,’ Drake said shakily, his eyes slipping closed. The offer sent a shock of excitement through Venom, but there was a note in his voice, in his blood, that was discordant and unpleasant. Something acrid, something strange. ‘Whatever you wanted, damn you,’ he snarled, back bowing further as his muscles went rigid.

Oh. Venom’s grip tightened as it instinctively twitched in toward itself. It didn’t want to aggravate old hurts. What it really wanted was to wipe away the past, to make it so that even a team leader could have chosen a host first. But that was impossible and Venom could only act in the present. 

**‘What _we_ want,’** it said firmly. 

Some of the tension bled out of Drake. ‘Yes. Right. Of course. Sorry, I–’

 **‘It’s alright,’** Venom cut across Drake’s apology. **‘Just want to feel good.’** It emphasised that by twisting around Drake’s cock and dragging its tongue over his nipples. 

Drake gasped and this time the tension had nothing to do with the past. ‘It does, you do,’ he panted.

Venom growled. The exploration had been fun, but now it wanted Drake to be thinking about nothing other than what it was doing to his body. Its tendrils writhed against him and it undulated against his cock. It’d learned a lot from the direct feedback from Drake’s blood and it knew how to touch, how to squeeze, how to stroke. 

Drake’s mouth fell open in a soundless cry. Venom grinned and slid its tongue up his neck and swiped it across his soft blood-warm lips. Drake twitched hard and licked at Venom’s tongue with his shorter, smoother one. The strange slick feeling was nice and Venom dipped into his mouth to taste those surfaces too. It didn’t go in far, not wanting to signal invasion. Then Drake moaned and closed his lips around Venom. This wasn’t the exciting threat of teeth from earlier. Drake sucked at Venom’s tongue. The even pressure was such an alien sensation and Venom’s claws tightened instinctively. Drake didn’t seem to mind and just sucked harder, rubbing his flat silky tongue against Venom. 

In burst of inspiration, Venom tried to copy the sensation around Drake’s cock. Mimicry came naturally to a klyntar, but Venom wasn’t sure it got the motion quite right. Either way Drake made a sharp, desperate sound around Venom’s tongue and the muscles in his thighs flexed and bunched as he tried to push himself closer to Venom’s mass.

The pleasure signalling in Drake’s blood spiked and Venom roared at the flood of hormones and chemicals that washed against the receptors along its claws. Part of that was the taste, but part of it was being able to feel exactly what it had done to Drake. Venom pressed itself flat against the shallow scratches on Drake’s chest to consume as much of the rich flavour as possible. For a dizzying moment it wished it was in Drake’s brain and could share the experience and the waves of neurotransmitters. But this was good too, and safer. 

Venom rippled as it registered strange traces of DNA right against its surface. Wait, that was right, some mammals could do that, clumsily send out genetic information without actually exchanging. Venom accepted the offering amicably, absorbing through its most generic pathways. Not that it was expecting interesting or useful sequences, but the nutrient-dense proteins and sugars that accompanied the information were a nice touch.

Venom flowed around Drake’s body, easing off the constricting tendrils wrapped around his limbs. More of its mass pulled in closer to its host body and it found itself oddly pleased when Drake moved in rather than drawing back. They both settled down against the sheets. Drake lay on his back with his thin scratches fully accessible. Venom rested one hand on the centre of his chest, slowly losing direct feedback as the blood dried. Venom felt good, hazy and sated with pleasure-saturated blood and a warm alien presence stretched out trustingly beside it. 

Drake gave a low sigh and ran his hand along Venom’s surface. ‘I needed that.’ A wry smile tugged at his lips and his body flexed as he stretched and relaxed.

Comfortable silence unfolded between them until Venom spoke. **‘Did you love Riot?’** It felt a little bad prodding at what was clearly an old wound, but it had to know. Had to understand what might be possible between a klyntar and a host. 

Drake flung his wrist over his eyes with a groan. ‘Let’s just say that the things I felt for Riot could form the basis of a very convincing insanity plea.’

**‘Felt?’**

‘Felt, feel, endlessly dissect in the hopes of making it go away. Fuck. What does it matter?’

**‘Sorry.’**

Drake snorted and lowered his arm. ‘Not your fault. In fact this is the most cathartic thing I’ve done in years, so thanks.’ His tone was sardonic, but Venom was pretty sure he meant it.

 **‘Had a lot of fun too. I like aliens,’** it confessed.

Drake smirked at the ceiling. ‘Mm, that’s certainly one advantage of being out here.’

Venom pushed itself up so it could hover above Drake and trace the drying blood across his chest with one claw-tip. **‘I could heal these, if you wanted.’** Drake stiffened where he lay and even without the direct access to his blood, Venom could imagine the taste of wariness and agitation. **‘Just asking. I wouldn’t need to go in far,’** it added quickly, letting a couple of tendrils extend from its fingers to slide across the outer surface of Drake’s skin in demonstration. Fixing even minor surface wounds would require lots of attention without symbiosis, but Drake had let Venom taste him and that wasn’t meaningless. 

Drake shivered beneath Venom’s touch. He was silent for long enough that Venom started to regret its offer. ‘I suppose what we were just doing left me at least as vulnerable as this would.’ He put a hand on his chest, tracing over the scratches and near the edge of Venom’s tendrils. ‘And these are lot more irritating and a lot less sexy than they were a few moments ago. Alright, go ahead.’

Warmth flickered in Venom’s core. It grinned as its tendrils slid past the dried blood and wriggled into the wounds themselves. Drake made a choked sound and his eyes squeezed shut, even as he pressed up into the touch. Venom worked quickly, knitting the flesh together and fixing all the little irregularities left by the damage. Luckily humans weren’t too difficult. Once you knew how one mammal worked, the rest were pretty similar. 

Drake’s expression was unreadable when Venom withdrew from his body. His breaths were coming short and fast and he was staring fixedly at the ceiling. ‘That’s almost more familiar than the sex. I’d forgotten how…’ He shook his head. When he turned toward Venom his expression had lost its brittle edge, but there was something careful about his tone when he spoke. ‘Thank you. For all of this.’

 **‘You are welcome,’** Venom replied solemnly. It was also thankful for the encounter. Learning that a team leader could be aberrant enough to fall for a ride made it feel better, less alone. Sooner or later it would return to the homeworld because it didn’t like being cut off from everyone else. But perhaps there were options between carrying out a mission and hiding out in anonymous ports. Riot had made a choice it could live with. Maybe Venom could make a better one.


End file.
